Review: 8095 General Grievous' Starfighter

[Oky]

Set Number: 8095

Name: General Grievous' Starfighter

Theme: Star Wars

Subtheme: The Clone Wars

Year of Release: 2010

Pieces: 454

Minifigs: 3

Price: $49.99 USD

S@H description:

Lead the next attack against the Republic with General Grievous™!

Returning to his secret lair to recover and plot his next attack on the Republic, General Grievous™ is attacked by a new Jedi Knight, Nahdar Vebb™. Assisted by his trusted droid assistant, A4-D™, and with his speedy starfighter nearby to escape, General Grievous will be difficult to stop!

Bricklink Brickset Brickshelf

The Box

The box has the blue Captain Rex design of the 2010 wave with the minifigures listed in the lower right corner of the front and the top. In the background is a planet that appears to be Vassek, the system in which Grievous' Lair is located.

The back features some ads for the three largest sets of the wave, a demonstration of the functionality of the starfighter's fin, a picture of the included "command chair", and a scene of Grievous battling Nahdar next to his starfighter. It's a little strange that the setting of this scene seems to be Utapau since this set is based on the Clone Wars which hasn't even featured that planet yet, but it's by far not as strange as other box art backgrounds, such as the jungle for the AT-AP and CTT or the desert for the Rebel/Stormie Battle Packs.

Contents

Inside, you will find an instruction booklet, four numbered bags, and a small sticker sheet.

The instructions are very gray-scale, so they're a little tough to read. Here is a random instruction page.

The last two pages of the booklet are comprised of a teaser for the upcoming Lego Clone Wars videogame (which, for some reason, features clones with the horrible old blasters) and an ad for the other Clone Wars sets of the current wave (which shows Grievous fighting Anakin, which is contradictory with canon since the two can't meet until Episode III, but I suppose that's something TLC cares little about).

Inside the first bag, along with some parts, there is a bag with smaller parts and Grievous' separately bagged body parts.

Which brings us to...

The Minifigs

Let's start with A4-D, Grievous' doctor. TLG didn't do a very good job on him. He isn't very accurate, especially since he's taller than the Grievous fig, and the use of a stickered brick for the head is just cheap. The gadgets on his back are kinda nice though since they are very poseable.

Here's a reference pic:

Here is Grievous out of his bag. As you can see, his arms are only printed on one side, which makes sense since he only has plating on one side of his arms. A4-D: "What a mess! It's going to take me forever to get you back into decent shape!"

After assembly, he looks pretty good. Very detailed and accurate! His eyes are a bit cartoony and not as grim-looking as they should be, but otherwise he's great! Nahdar Vebb is neat too, although nothing special since we already have Mon Calamari.

Grievous has a nice hunched-over stature.

Nahdar has back printing, which is nice to see.

This is what Nahdar looks like in the show.

Grievous comes with his second set of arms which can be attached to his upper arms. It looks kinda strange how one set of arms seems longer than the other, but at least it makes them very poseable.

He also comes with his blaster, so you can recreate the scene from "Lair of Grievous" where he kills Nahdar. Fried Calamari anyone?

The Surgery Chair

The rest of the parts from Bag 1 are used to build the chair on which A4-D repairs Grievous. It's a very quick build, but the end result is very nice looking. It comes with a weapons rack that can hold all four of Grievous' lightsabers as well as his blaster.

The chair is built on a turntable, so it can swivel, and you can straighten it out to become a surgery table, just like in the episode. Lots of playability already right here! This could have been a nice "Darth Vader Transformation"-style impulse set. Oh well.

The left over parts from the first bag are a bunch droid arms, a stud, and a T-piece. If you want, you can use these as spare parts for Grievous.

The Soulless One

With the parts from the second bag, you build the main body of the ship. The notable pieces here are the printed windscreen (yes, printed!) and the random white 2x4 brick which will be hidden inside the nose of the ship.

Here are some in-build shots. First you build a nice tan and brown striped base. It's kind of a pity that most of this will be covered up later.

Then you extend it to the back to create the base for the cockpit and add a bunch of wedge-plates.

We go on to add more smooth elements. The cockpit is starting to take shape.

Lastly, you cover it all up and, voila, about half of the ship is done.

Bag 3 contains all the parts for the engines. Some pieces of interest here are the dark bley (and tan) curved slopes and vulture droid wing pieces which are very rare in that color, as well as some trans-orange bits in the smaller bag. Also, there are two more random white bricks, but don't worry, just like the first one, they will not be visible in the end result.

Here is the right engine, about halfway through the build.

One engine completed. Now you repeat the same build to make the other engine, just mirrored.

After the engines are done, they are attached to the body of the ship via Technic pins. Looks pretty good already.

The fourth bag contains pieces for giving it the finishing touches, such as the fin, laser cannons, main thrusters, and missiles.

At last, the starfighter is complete! Count Dooku will be pleased.

Impressive. Most impressive. It looks as good from the back as it does from the front.

Here is a reference pic of the starfighter from the show:

Pretty accurate if you ask me. Here are some straight-on shots.

There's some nice detailing on the side of the engines.

As you can see, there are lots of thrusters on this ship, allowing for a quick cowardly getaway.

It has a nice and sleek shape when looking from above.

On the bottom, it has a weird torpedo thingy that was never shown in the show, or otherwise. It's just something TLG added for playability. I would have preferred a smooth belly for the starfighter, but oh well.

A close-up of the cockpit. I like how they did the control-handlebars. The best thing about them is that they are mounted on one of those rubbery Technic pieces so that they hold the windscreen shut when closed. The stickers add little holo-tables to the cockpit so that Grievous can talk to (and hang up on) Dooku.

Here's the Droid General at the controls, ready to take off and leave another super-expensive Separatist station to get blown up by the Jedi (Perhaps you can already tell, I'm not a huge fan of The Clone Wars' depiction of Grievous ).

For flight, the back fin swings up, and the windscreen slides back into the closed position. I like how they used the flag pieces to make it look like the fin is receding into the back of the cockpit, just like it should. This is a huge improvement over the old Soulless One which had the entire nose sliding, and could only have the fin fold down, which looked pretty stupid.

The laser cannons at the front can be aimed up. This is also an improvement as the cannons on the old one had an entire part of the wing tilting back. However, the trans-orange cones make them look a bit cheap, unlike the lightsaber hilts from the old one.

On each engine, there's also a hidden flick-fire missile launcher. I don't mind these since they are hidden pretty well, and they add some more playability to the set.

They can't be flipped down all the way when the ship is standing on the ground, which is why I had to prop it up (poor Nahdar ).

Spare Parts

These are all the parts that are left over. Quite a few, but nothing overly exciting.

Comparison with 7656

Now, the question you're probably asking is: Is it really better than the old General Grievous' Starfighter? Well, here they are, side by side. The new one is only slightly larger than the old one, which is surprising considering the box is about twice the size of that of 7656. The old one definitely looks much sleeker than the new one, but the new one is more detailed and accurate, especially regarding the engines.

The old one doesn't have any indication of thrusters on the engines, and the back of the cockpit is rather blocky whereas that of the new one has a nice flow to it thanks to the flag pieces and lower thrusters.

As I mentioned earlier, the fin retraction is much better on the new one as you can see in this picture:

The old Grievous pales in comparison to the new one - literally. He's all-white, is standing up completely straight, and has a super-thick neck and those awkward bars on his hips. The only thing that's better about him is the way his second arms are attached and the fact that he can wear a cape, but on the other hand, he's much less poseable than the new one.

When holding all four lightsabers, the new Grievous can point them in virtually any direction, while the old one can only point them up. How lame. Not to mention that the old one had the boring bley hilts.

Now compare them with this reference image and tell me which one is best.

Ratings

Design: 5/5 - It's very nice and accurate, a nearly perfect rendition of the Droid General's Starfighter! It's a little edgier than the old one, but that's due to the Clone Wars style that it is based on.

Build: 4/5 - It's an enjoyable build, although the construction was a little unstable at some points, and there is some repetition.

Minifigs: 4/5 - Grievous and Nahdar are excellent, and even though the Doctor is easily one of the worst Star Wars minifigs ever, I'm still glad they included him. It would have been nice if Kit Fisto and/or some clones would have been included, but not necessary, I suppose.

Playability: 5/5 - It's very swooshable, even if a bit heavy! The sliding cockpit, the retracting fin, the laser cannons, everything works very well and just like it should, and they even managed to incorporate some missiles in there without distracting from the design. Together with the surgery chair and weapons rack, there are several play hours guaranteed!

Parts: 4.5/5 - Aside from the printed new cockpit piece and some slopes in dark bley, nothing really special.

Price: 4/5 - 454 pieces for $50 is pretty good by today's standards, even if it comes with only three figs.

Overall: 5/5 - A very accurate model of the Soulless One from the Clone Wars TV show, along with a small part of Grievous' Lair and two great minifigs, all for a reasonable price. I'd say this is one of the best Star Wars sets of the year and I can recommend it, especially to those who don't have a Grievous fig yet.

All images can be found in this brickshelf folder.

Parting shot

For those of you who were thinking about not applying the stickers, you might want to think twice.

Edited November 27, 2010 by KimT

[XimenaPaulina]

Impressive review as usual Oky! I especially loved the comparison photos of the old and new Grievous and the starfighters. I definitely think the new starfighter is better than the old one, and the new-look highly-detailed (Megablocky?) Grievous is really a must-have minifig for any LSW fans. Though I never realized the new GG's neck was that long! Even if this is not on my must-get list, I'd still say this is an above average set.

BTW, shouldn't this be already a final review and not WIP (as stated in the title)?

Edited September 28, 2010 by KielDaMan

[Aethersprite]

Great review as always Oky! I love this set, pity it's too pricey and way out of my budget.

[Rufus]

Thanks for the top-notch review, Oky! It's great to see such an in-depth analysis and comparison.

I love this ship - kinda funky and retro. It's what I'd imagine would happen if SAAB made spaceships. I hadn't thought there was much wrong with the old Lego one, but now I can see the new one is much more like the real thing (and of course Grievous is a great improvement).

I haven't got this one yet, so I can't compare, but I liked the clicky-slidy cockpit on the old one - a great technique.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the review 'Oky Wan' - now I really like this set and I enjoyed the build better than Cad Bane's Speeder.

I do agree on GG's medical/mechanical droid - Lego could have done better !

The ship is much better than the old one (I have both ships now) mainly around the engine exhausts !

I'm a conformist! !

[Future74]

Thanks for the detailed review! Excellent!

I agree this set is a big improvement over the old version. Not only the ship it better but the minifigure of Grievous too.

Thanks for the comparison pictures.

I havent build any set of the summer wave yet (still on the shelve), so this review gives me great inside in what to expect.

For those of you who were thinking about not applying the stickers, you might want to think twice.

Hilarious

[Oky]

BTW, shouldn't this be already a final review and not WIP (as stated in the title)?

Whoops! Forgot to delete that part. Could a mod please do that for me?

I haven't got this one yet, so I can't compare, but I liked the clicky-slidy cockpit on the old one - a great technique.

Well, this one is less clicky and more slidy, but still stays shut while swooshing.

[WhiteFang]

Whoops! Forgot to delete that part. Could a mod please do that for me?

Done, I have amended the title earlier.

Nice review. It's great to see this new GG starfighter review. This set is definitely way much better than the first version. Even the minifig looks better too. I wished there was a robe for General Grievous.

Thanks for sharing.

[Xin]

Great review!

This set is my favourite among all the 2010 Star wars release. GG minifig is one of the best so far.

[pedro]

Great review Oky, thanks for sharing it with us. This is the ultimate rendition of Grievous's ship; LEGO have captures those sleek lines and shapes really well and the details are spot-on.

Does anyone else think that Grievous would have looked a bit better white instead of tan (obviously with printing and dark grey areas intact)? His colouration is bone-like but I feel white would've matched better than tan. A great minifig nontheless and it's good to see Nahdar included.

[Future74]

Does anyone else think that Grievous would have looked a bit better white instead of tan (obviously with printing and dark grey areas intact)? His colouration is bone-like but I feel white would've matched better than tan. A great minifig nontheless and it's good to see Nahdar included.

Looking at the reference picture provided by Oky Wan Kenobi I think the colours of Grievous are well picked, in my opinion better than white. But than again it's hard to picture him in white, maybe someone with paintshoppro skills could show us an alternative white Grievous?

An improvement I would have liked to see was that his neck and head wouldnt be fixed and his head could go up and down.

[Brickus]

Have you tried using the cape from the Obi-Wan Vs Grievous set on the new General, does it work or even look good. Anyway excellent review.

[1eyedjoker]

Nice review, very funny. This is a set I'll be picking up mostly for the General Grievous minifig and his sweet swivel chair.

[pedro]

Looking at the reference picture provided by Oky Wan Kenobi I think the colours of Grievous are well picked, in my opinion better than white. But than again it's hard to picture him in white, maybe someone with paintshoppro skills could show us an alternative white Grievous?

If you type Grievous into google you'll see what I mean Future.

Here you go, I've done a quick job on Oky's image...

I much prefer him paler!

[Future74]

If you type Grievous into google you'll see what I mean Future.

Here you go, I've done a quick job on Oky's image...

I much prefer him paler!

Ok, good point, a little paler looks better

[Masked Builder]

Great review! Now I really want this...

The last two pages of the booklet are comprised of a teaser for the upcoming Lego Clone Wars videogame (which, for some reason, features clones with the horrible old blasters) and an ad for the other Clone Wars sets of the current wave (which shows Grievous fighting Anakin, which is contradictory with canon since the two can't meet until Episode III, but I suppose that's something TLC cares little about).

Yeah I think that's odd too.

[prateek]

This set is nice. A bit expensive in Canadian $$$, but alright. This thing's a beast compared to the old one, but I don't like the GG fig too much. The colour is too dark, and he is too short, but other than that, I like

[Big Cam]

Great review okie, as an owner of the first Gen ship, this one really makes me jealous. It is just so much fuller, and complete looking. I really like your review too, I've been absent from the rafor a while and have missed most of your reviews, but it looks like you are well on your way to joining the teachers

Awesome review!

[Oky]

Does anyone else think that Grievous would have looked a bit better white instead of tan (obviously with printing and dark grey areas intact)? His colouration is bone-like but I feel white would've matched better than tan.

Well, I prefer tan over white, but looking that edited pic you posted, I must admit it would have been nice if TLC would have made a new yellowed-white color for this fig. But then again, that probably would have been another reason for the haters to call this fig "unLego".

An improvement I would have liked to see was that his neck and head wouldnt be fixed and his head could go up and down.

Yes, that would have been nice as that fixed angle of his neck bothers me too. As it is, he looks almost a bit too hunched over, hence him looking a bit short. But that would be difficult to do with the usual Lego clips as those would be too big for that.

Have you tried using the cape from the Obi-Wan Vs Grievous set on the new General, does it work or even look good. Anyway excellent review.

I don't have that particular cape, but yes, I did try it, and neither does it work nor look good. Even Zurg's cape is too short, and since Grievous' neck is so thin, there's nothing for the cape to hold on to, so it just flops around.

Yeah I think that's odd too.

The release date is wrong too, so I'm guessing this ad was made very early on in the production of the game and suffers of preliminarity.

[Pet-Lego]

Great review and what a nice set.

Really nice to get a detailed what's what of the new sets.

Guess I'll have another set to get after I get Slave I.

[Ras 74]

An awesome review Oky!!

First got to start with the last picture though. That one made my day and is something I just love in a review.

To finnish it of with something crazy or funny like this.

The review itself got everything you can ask for really. Great references, comparissions to the older fig and ship.

Simply a master piece of a review! Great job!

If I didn´t all ready had this set, this review would sway me to get it ASAP!

[gotoAndLego]

Great review. Had I not planned on buying it already this would convince. I've always liked this ship, reminds me of an American muscle car.

[Gunner]

Great review, Oky. Can you tell me if the new General Grievous fits in the old fighter? I own 7656 and I don't want to get the new fighter, just the Grievous minifig. Thanks

[Oky]

Simply a master piece of a review! Great job!

Thanks. Only the best for my fellow brick-lovers!

Great review, Oky. Can you tell me if the new General Grievous fits in the old fighter? I own 7656 and I don't want to get the new fighter, just the Grievous minifig. Thanks

He looks a bit crammed in the 4-wide cockpit, but yeah, he does fit.

[Dino_Bot]

I gotta tell you. I like the old one better. I remember doing a review and being hugely pleased with it.